Word: patton
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Shortly before his death Brigadier General Hugh ("Iron Pants") Johnson made a prophecy about his friend Major General George Smith ("Old Blood and Guts") Patton Jr.: "Critics say he is reckless and impetuous. That's what was said at West Point. He says he is going to command an army. My bet is on Georgie Patton." Georgie Patton became a lieutenant general a fortnight ago. Last week he took command of the central sector in Tunisia, where U.S. troops got an ignominious licking a month ago. Patton celebrated his appointment by advancing...
...Holder. Patton replaced scrappy, 59-year-old Major General Lloyd R. Fredendall, an infantryman and tactician who may have been the unluckiest general in the North African campaign. FredendalE had to hold the whole central Tunisian front with an inadequate army of poorly equipped French and unseasoned U.S. troops. He said at the time, "I am holding...
...Lions Tremble. Fredendall's successor is a tank man. George Patton's favorite motto (expurgated) is "Grab 'em by the nose and kick 'em in the tail." In 1916 he was a dashing, cocky young cavalryman and aide to "Black Jack" Pershing; in Mexico. When he went to France in World War I he organized the first U.S. tank brigade, returned to study that new wrinkle in modern warfare, and to help develop it when the U.S. Army at last got around to it in a serious...
Some of George Patton's antics caused stiff eyebrows to twitch at headquarters. His profanity became legendary. With his flair for the spectacular, he designed, had tailored and posed in a special tank uniform : green with white buttons and black stripes. His own helmet was golden with two silver stars. (The Army declined to accept it as regulation.) With his flair for vivid phraseology, he wrote some war poetry (unpublished). With a tidy, inherited fortune he indulged his love for horses, polo, sailing boats and games...
...forces had to abandon Gafsa, Fériana and Sbeïtla, swinging their whole line north and westward to escape annihilation. General George S. Patton's soa-in-law, Lieut. Colonel Johnny Waters, led one armored force to Djebel Lessoude, rescued isolated infantrymen from destruction. By midweek thousands of Allied vehicles were rolling west over sand hills and cactus patches-trucks, tanks, jeeps, two-wheeled carts, the jackass baggage trains of tired French Zouaves and Senegalese...